The Fishing Thread

[Easy 6]

Searched around & only found the video fishing & BassMasters threads, i know their are plenty of outdoorsman here, so i figured it'd be cool to draw upon the Planets vast experience in all things fishing.

I only use spincast reels & fish mostly large/smallmouth bass & cats. My choice of reels is quite the source of derision from many people i know 'duffer gear', but i haul in my share of 6 pound bass & 10-20 pound cats on that gear no problem. With a little know-how you can use just about any technique you want to on 'duffer gear'.

Berkley Powerbaits are a big part of my trick bag, the difference between those & regular stuff is night & day. My best action last summer came on Mister Twister scented white curly tail grubs, on one day fishing from shore to a bridge pier, i caught smallies, bigmouths, perch & even 1 carp believe it or not... great day. But my bread & butter is a texas rigged Berkley worm, it'll wiggle through any kind of cover without getting hung up.

With cats i strictly bottom fish, no bobber & bait is just as basic... but its always in 2's to give'em a real treat... a shrimp/with a nightcrawler, liver/chunk of cheese etc. Cats are mostly for night sport to me, time to kick back a lil...

So thats me style, how do the rest of you guys get your fish on? What do you fish for, what do you use? IIRC Missouri's trout season just kicked off, anyone getting anything?

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by loochy

I hired a guide when I was in New Mexico. It was well worth it, even though I didn't need him. He corrected some flaws in my cast and he gave me some pointers that I had never previously run across.

Actually that totally makes sense. I could probably learn a thing or two.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by tooge

The red ear sunfish in my pond are getting to be pretty nice size. There are now bass controlling the smaller ones, so I'm releasing these to get bigger. That's my son. He's a fishin machine

Nice Fish!!!

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by tooge

So, here is how that carp is prepared for frying. And YES, it is that exact same type of common carp. I've caught just about every species of freshwater fish swimming. I love bluegill, walleye, and crappie as table fare. Having said that, common carp is every bit as good. They have the same diet as bluegill for the most part, in insects and invertebrates, so the flesh is similar, but you can catch one and have a nice fish fry instead of having to catch 30.

I don't fish for carp at all, but if you catch one, by all means, try scoring and frying it, or try brining and smoking it. I hate when people spout out opinions about something that they've never even tried.

Hmmm. I guess you do learn new things all the time.

There are massive carp visible daily behind the house.
I actually think it might be illegal to not release carp for some reason down here. That's what someone told me, anyway. Not sure if true.

[ShortRoundChief]

I once caught crabs but I was nowhere near water.

[beach tribe]

So Tennessee game and wildlife came to our lake in TN and saned(sp?) it to see what all was in it, and they told me that the Bass would never get much bigger because there were so many that they didn't have enough to eat between all of them to grow large.

Does that make any sense to anyone here at all?

[stonedstooge]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

So Tennessee game and wildlife came to our lake in TN and saned(sp?) it to see what all was in it, and they told me that the Bass would never get much bigger because there were so many that they didn't have enough to eat between all of them to grow large.

Does that make any sense to anyone here at all?

Seined. Yup makes lots of sense. You have to remove the bass as you catch them and eat them. Thinning the herd allows the ones left less competition for food, and thus they will eat more and grow larger. It's a nice problem to have if you like to eat bass

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

I once caught crabs but I was nowhere near water.

With a mind like yours, you'll probably want the land-crab

[ShortRoundChief]

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

Seined. Yup makes lots of sense. You have to remove the bass as you catch them and eat them. Thinning the herd allows the ones left less competition for food, and thus they will eat more and grow larger. It's a nice problem to have if you like to eat bass

I'm all about that bass, no treble.... hooks though.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

Seined. Yup makes lots of sense. You have to remove the bass as you catch them and eat them. Thinning the herd allows the ones left less competition for food, and thus they will eat more and grow larger. It's a nice problem to have if you like to eat bass

That's what they said, dude.
Even said if you're not going to eat em' just throw em' in the woods.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

I beg you and everyone else to please be kind to others in here, I want this to be everyones thread... I enjoyed Inmems pics, looked like a perfect eating size cat his uncle caught.

BTW, what is that small fish with the blue vertical stripes in your pic?

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by tooge

So, here is how that carp is prepared for frying. And YES, it is that exact same type of common carp. I've caught just about every species of freshwater fish swimming. I love bluegill, walleye, and crappie as table fare. Having said that, common carp is every bit as good. They have the same diet as bluegill for the most part, in insects and invertebrates, so the flesh is similar, but you can catch one and have a nice fish fry instead of having to catch 30.

I don't fish for carp at all, but if you catch one, by all means, try scoring and frying it, or try brining and smoking it. I hate when people spout out opinions about something that they've never even tried.

A LOT of people around here like carp, and they ALL claim that properly scoring it is the secret to a perfect fillet... what I've found is that NO ONE is that good at scoring and I always get multiple sharp stabs to the mouth when trying it.

But I've also had it where everything is ground up, bones and all, and made into a sorta crabcake... and those are killer diller.

I love to catch them, they're always a great test of my skills on lighter gear, better and much more powerful fighters than some think... but once landed and inspected, they go straight back whence they came.

[tooge]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

So Tennessee game and wildlife came to our lake in TN and saned(sp?) it to see what all was in it, and they told me that the Bass would never get much bigger because there were so many that they didn't have enough to eat between all of them to grow large.

Does that make any sense to anyone here at all?

Very true. I made the mistake of putting crappie in my pond about 10 years ago. About three years in, all we caught were shit tons of 6 inch crappie. I started harvesting the crap out of them, and even throwing some into the woods and creek behind the house. I also started harvesting smaller bass. Low and behold, the big bass got bigger, started chowing down on small crappie, and now the problem is solved. It's important to harvest mid range sized fish. The big ones are the best genetics in the pond, and they also lay the most eggs. I've got a pond management book from the MO dept of conservation that details the approximate amount of fish in lbs to remove from a given body of water per year, based on the size of the body of water. THen, I just try to make sure I'm getting close to that but only with mid sized fish. That way, you catch lots of big fish for fun, the small ones get eaten by the big fish, and the medium ones get eaten by my family. Works pretty well.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

I beg you and everyone else to please be kind to others in here, I want this to be everyones thread... I enjoyed Inmems pics, looked like a perfect eating size cat his uncle caught.

BTW, what is that small fish with the blue vertical stripes in your pic?

OK. I'll play nice. I was just messing with him. It's Inmem, after all.

It's a peacock bass. Fight to the death. Feels like a fish 3 times that size.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

Hmmm. I guess you do learn new things all the time.

There are massive carp visible daily behind the house.
I actually think it might be illegal to not release carp for some reason down here. That's what someone told me, anyway. Not sure if true.

Hard to imagine that being the case. Especially with the explosion of silver carp, need to get all of those we can out of the water.

[Chiefnj2]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

So Tennessee game and wildlife came to our lake in TN and saned(sp?) it to see what all was in it, and they told me that the Bass would never get much bigger because there were so many that they didn't have enough to eat between all of them to grow large.

Does that make any sense to anyone here at all?

Too many big fish with not enough food or room = stunted growth.